Hearing Tang Ling's furious scolding, Tang Yan remained silent. He knew that although his grandfather's words blazed with rage, his father had been missing for years, and he had neither uncles nor brothers. As the Tang Family's only descendant, he was still dearly loved by old Tang Ling.
He was also weighing his own situation. His dantian was now crippled. Although he knew the formula for a pill that could restore his meridians, alchemy had nine ranks, and such a pill belonged to the sixth. Across the entire Fragrance-Hearing Kingdom, even fourth-rank alchemists were few and far between. Who could he possibly find to refine a sixth-rank pill?
How was he supposed to cultivate from here?
Without the strength to protect himself, he would be ground down until not even a scrap remained in this world of martial cultivation.
Tang Ling could not help wondering what was going on. Normally, whenever this brat was bullied, he would bristle with outrage and beg his grandfather to avenge him. Why was he so obedient today?
What surprised Tang Ling even more was that the brat usually dressed in garish finery and carried himself like a wastrel. No matter how often he was scolded, he never changed. Yet today, his clothes were simple and proper. Had his temperament changed, or what?
Looking again at his stance, Tang Ling saw that although he kept his head lowered and his eyes downcast without answering, his back was straight. He even showed a trace of backbone.
"Fortunately, your Uncle Mo arrived in time. Any later, and that little beast from the Liu Family might have used the opportunity to kill you. Be more careful from now on, and don't stir up trouble. If you dare cause trouble again, you'll face the family's discipline! Off you go!"
Seeing that his grandson still said nothing, Tang Ling could not tell what was going through his mind. Although the boy's dantian had been destroyed, he had never wanted to cultivate anyway, and Tang Ling had never expected him to accomplish anything in martial cultivation. He only hoped the boy could live out his life safely and keep the Tang Family's ancestral flame burning.
"The young master seems a little different today," the old steward, who had remained silent all this time, suddenly remarked.
Old Master Tang nodded and sighed. "I don't know whether I'm imagining it. Perhaps it's because he's only just recovered from a serious illness. Who knows what he'll be like in a couple of days? If his temperament really has changed, we'll hire a few teachers to teach him business and strategy. If he learns to manage a business well, at least he'll have a path forward."
Tang Yan knew nothing of the conversation between Old Master Tang and Uncle Mo. He walked back with worry weighing on him. He had only just crossed into this world, and his dantian was already ruined. This was a hellish start!
Tang Yan could not help thinking of the Heaven-Earth Creation Cauldron. If it still existed, he could use it to begin cultivating again. Unfortunately, the cauldron had fared even worse than he had-it had been reduced to drifting ash and smoke.
Although he had no true qi with which to control alchemical flames and refine pills, Tang Yan was not one to sit idle. He turned toward the Library Pavilion. He urgently needed to learn about this world, especially its medicinal herbs, which formed the foundation of alchemy.
After briefly leafing through a few books, Tang Yan could not help smiling. Although this world's culture differed from that of China, the names, properties, and effects of its medicinal herbs were almost identical!
Even so, Tang Yan read through every page of those books, committing the differences firmly to memory. When he glanced outside, the sun had already set. He rubbed his protesting stomach, smiled, and returned to his courtyard.
After eating the evening meal Xiao Cui had prepared, Tang Yan sat on his bed and carefully sorted through his thoughts.
He truly had been lucky to survive. His forced breakthrough had caused the Heaven-Earth Creation Cauldron to explode, yet his soul had somehow crossed into another world, giving him another chance at life.
The circumstances of this body's original owner, however, were every bit as much of a pain in the ass.
First, his father had vanished over a decade ago, and the original owner had been an ignorant wastrel. Although the Tang Family was one of Cloud City's great families, if Tang Yan had no strength of his own, the day his grandfather departed this world would probably be the day the Tang Family fell.
"I can't just sit here waiting to die. I have to regain my strength!" Tang Yan frowned. After a moment's hesitation, he decided to give it a try. Could his soul's crossing have brought about a miracle that would allow him to cultivate again?
He sat cross-legged on the bed, calmed his mind, focused his thoughts, and steadied his breathing, trying to enter a meditative state.
Ten breaths passed. His dantian showed no response...
A quarter of an hour passed. His dantian showed no response...
Two hours passed. His dantian showed no response...
In his previous life, Tang Yan had been a ninth-rank alchemist. When refining pills, he had often spent ten days or half a month keeping watch over his cauldron, and his mental fortitude was formidable. Yet as his dantian remained unresponsive for so long, he gradually began to grow restless.
Crossing into a world where martial strength reigned supreme, only to be unable to cultivate-what a hellish joke.
Just as Tang Yan was about to give up, an immensely familiar, boundless aura suddenly burst from his sea of consciousness.
Tang Yan's mind jolted violently. This aura... it's actually the Heaven-Earth Creation Cauldron!
He hurriedly calmed himself and sank his entire awareness into his sea of consciousness. There, a translucent alchemical cauldron slowly revolved.
"Supreme Pill Canon: seize the creative power of heaven and earth, refine the supreme essence! The practitioner must disperse the cultivation within the dantian, break before rebuilding, and master the Supreme Pill Canon." A deep, resonant voice came from the cauldron. Immediately afterward, a lengthy torrent of complex information poured into Tang Yan's mind.
After a long while, Tang Yan finally finished absorbing the information, and towering waves surged through his heart.
Even in his previous life, when his alchemy had reached the perfection of a furnace's pure-blue flame, he had still needed an alchemical cauldron to refine pills. Yet according to the Supreme Pill Canon transmitted by the Heaven-Earth Creation Cauldron, once his cultivation reached a certain level, he could turn his own body into a cauldron and refine pills-with even better results!
Truly extraordinary! Tang Yan marveled inwardly.
It was exactly as he had guessed when he first awoke. The Heaven-Earth Creation Cauldron's ultimate secret was to refine and assimilate its soul, and the final goal of cultivation was to unite man and cauldron as one.
In his previous life, he had never grasped the key to using the Heaven-Earth Creation Cauldron. Yet in this life, his circumstances happened to meet the requirements for cultivating the Supreme Pill Canon perfectly. Truly, it was a matter of timing and fate.
Tang Yan began cultivating, gradually slipping into meditation with each breath he drew and released. With the monstrous expertise of his previous life and this body's naturally sound constitution, a warm current soon began gathering in his lower abdomen.
"Master, the young master didn't go out today. He went to the Library Pavilion instead," the head steward, Uncle Mo, reported quietly in Old Master Tang's study that night.
"What?" Old Master Tang raised his brows and hurriedly asked, "That brat spent the entire day in the library?"
"Indeed."
At Uncle Mo's confirmation, a strange expression appeared on Old Master Tang's face. Only after a long pause did he speak. "That brat never used to practice martial arts, and whenever I made him read, he'd fall asleep before finishing a single page. Now he's spent an entire day in the library? Does he actually know how to read? Or did he sleep especially well while reading there? Hurry and bring me the books he read today!"
Uncle Mo gave a wry smile, opened the box he had already prepared, and handed it over. "The young master read quite a few books today!"
"The Complete Herbal Compendium, the Detailed Guide to Medicinal Herbs, the Detailed Guide to the Continent's Geography, Two Thousand Years of Fragrant Listening Kingdom History..." As he looked over the books, Old Master Tang's expression grew even stranger. "Has that brat really changed his ways?"
Hearing Old Master Tang's words, Uncle Mo offered his congratulations. "From the young master's birth until now, all the books he read before today wouldn't add up to this many. Perhaps his temperament truly has changed."
"Bullshit! That brat has a whole bed's worth of erotic picture books and scandalous unofficial histories stashed underneath it. He's read plenty of books!" Old Master Tang snorted angrily before continuing, "Still, reading these books really doesn't suit that little bastard's temperament. Keep watching him for another couple of days!"
Before you continue